“Sick & Twisted” Falmouth Tory Candidate posted Nazi pic… twice

Other posts show a far right bias and anti Muslim sentiment

A Tory candidate for Cornwall Council has shared, and then re-shared, sick Nazi themed memes, anti-immigrant jokes and shown support for far-right demonstrations on his social media feeds.

Richard Cunningham who is contesting the Falmouth seat left vacant by the death of Candy Atherton twice posted a picture of a man in a Nazi uniform saying ‘I wear your Grandad’s clothes’. Cunningham first posted it in 2014 with the tag “Political correctness be damned – this made me chuckle too much”.

Then using a Facebook memory (those posts from FB that say ‘look what you were doing a year ago’ etc) he re-posted the same picture with the message:

“Apparently I was just as sick and twisted 365 days ago as I am today”

Cunnigham’s Facebook profile is now suspiciously clean of the offending material. No matter, dear reader. A friend of Cornish Stuff (who wishes to remain anon) has been collecting screenshots of Richard’s online behaviour, which we can now share with you. See below.

Cunningham’s campaign team has confirmed that the screenshots are genuine and taken from their candidate’s personal accounts.

Richard’s current profile, describes himself a “Unashamed Christian, Englishman and a Conservative, in that order.”

Richard Cunningham posted, then re-posted this sick meme in 2014 then again in 2015

Cunningham is the Conservative Party candidate in the Cornwall Council by-election in Falmouth Smithick. He is also standing for election to Falmouth Town Council.

Another post with a Nazi reference captures Cunningham’s reply to a post that asks what people’s favourite LGBTQ figure is, Cunningham comments “Ernst Rohm”. It was posted last year.

Ernst Rohm was a prominent early figure of the Nazi Party and once a close ally of Hitler. He was openly gay and was killed by in the ‘Night of the Long Knives’ by his own party in 1934, as they saw him as a rival to Hitler’s leadership.

Other posts captured show a disturbing far right bias, an anti-Muslim, anti- immigrant or just anti any foreigner theme. Here he comments on a far right demonstration in Poland:

And this one reposts a story with the title “Why I’ll never apologise for my white male privelege”

A Conservative Party spokesperson for Cunningham’s campaign issued this brief statement on his behalf:

“While we accept that these posts were made in bad taste, we also note that they are not Richard’s words, and were shared from other social media accounts or sites. These shares, taken from his personal and private account, were made over two years ago, before Richard was a member of the Conservative Party, and before he had considered running for elected office.”

The obvious question Falmouth will be asking mr cunnigham: : Are you still sick and twisted?

1 Comment

It is with real surprise that I find a candidate for my wife’s former seat of Smithick posting offensive material on the internet. This is without doubt one of the most crass things that I have seen in twenty five years of politics, and is not that anyone of sense would wish to see. Candy Atherton understood that to fight for your political views required sense, humor, and political nous to make things happen in real world politics, not idiocy and amateurism of this nature.

I call on Mr Cunningham to do the right thing and withdraw from this election. Failing that I ask that the electorate of the ward to not vote for him, regardless of party allegiance.

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